Cite as: 517 U. S. 186 (1996)
Opinion of Stevens, J.
remedy has been conferred upon the private litigant." 43 393
U. S., at 556, n. 20. Even if it mattered whether § 10 created rights or remedies, the other provisions of the Act indicate that the antipoll tax provision established a right to vote without paying a fee.44
Furthermore, when Congress reenacted and extended the life of the Voting Rights Act in 1975, it recognized that private rights of action were equally available under § 10. Section 3, for example, originally provided for special procedures in any action brought "under any statute to enforce the guarantees of the fifteenth amendment" by the Attorney General. See 79 Stat. 437. In 1975, Congress amended that section to cover actions brought by "the Attorney General or an aggrieved person." 42 U. S. C. § 1973a (1988 ed.) (emphasis added). The Senate Report explained that the purpose of the change was to provide the same remedies to private parties as had formerly been available to the Attorney General alone. See S. Rep. No. 94-295, pp. 39-40 (1975).45 Since § 10 is, by its terms, a statute designed for
43 We do not know, therefore, what Justice Thomas means when he describes § 5 as conferring a "statutory privilege" on a group of individuals. See post, at 287. If that phrase refers to a "right," then Justice Thomas is flatly wrong, for Allen itself denies reaching that question. The "guarantee of § 5" to which Allen refers is simply its holding that individuals can sue under § 5. It is circular to rely on that conclusion to distinguish § 5 from § 10, for the question presented here is precisely whether this Court should apply the same logic to § 10.
44 See § 12(a) (prescribing sanctions for any deprivation or attempted deprivation of "any right secured by section . . . 1973h [§ 10]"), 42 U. S. C. § 1973j(a) (1988 ed.) (emphasis added); § 12(c) (prescribing sanctions for any conspiracy to interfere with "any right secured by section . . . 1973h [§ 10]"), 42 U. S. C. § 1973j(c) (1988 ed.) (emphasis added).
45 The Senate Report went on to explain more generally: "In enacting remedial legislation, Congress has regularly established a dual enforcement mechanism. It has, on the one hand, given enforcement responsibility to a governmental agency, and on the other, has also provided remedies to private persons acting as a class or on their own behalf. The Commit-
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